1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flanged connector that will serve as an interface which is surface-mounted on a printed circuit board installed in a body of a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as `PC`) or the like, so that any peripheral unit or device such as a key board, a mouse, a printer, a modem or a scanner may electrically be connected to the PC through a plugging cable.
2. Prior Art
The connectors of this kind have been provided in accordance with the standard `IEEE 1394` (applied to the high speed serial buses). Basically, these prior art connectors comprise each an insulating housing, a plurality of contacts isolated therein one from another and a metal shell covering the housing so as to shield the contacts. Also known in the art are certain types of flanged connectors each having a flange or a pair of flanges which are formed by bending outwards and extending sideways the metal shell's portion or portions adjacent to a front opening formed through said shell. Those flanges are designed to protect the connector's soldered regions from stress when a mating plug is pushed in or pulled off the connector.
FIGS. 7 and 8 show the prior art flanged connectors, respectively in their use.
As seen in FIG. 7, one of those flanged connectors 1 comprises an insulating housing 2, discrete contacts 3 isolated one from another within the housing 2, and a metal shell 4 covering the housing 2 and shielding the contacts 3. The connector further comprises flanges 6 that are formed each by bending outwards and extending sideways a shell's portion located adjacent to a front opening 5 of said sell. Short cylinders 7 are formed by burring the flanges 6, and internally threaded to provide female-threaded bores 8. Set-screws 9 will be fastened in and through the threaded bores 8 so as to fix the flanges 6 on a PC main body's panel 10, securing thereto the flanged connector. The contacts 3 have their lead ends 3a protruding backwards from the housing 2 and bent downwards. The metal shell 4 has anchor legs 4a formed integral therewith and protruding downwards from opposite sides of the shell and beyond a lower face thereof Those lead ends 3a and anchor legs 4a will be soldered to the printed circuit board 11, thus surface-mounting the connector thereon.
In use, a mating plug 12 attached to a cable end will be inserted in the flanged connector 1, through its front opening 5. The set-screws 9 should not collide or interfere with the plug's opposite sides when bringing the cable and the connector into electric connection. Therefore, it has been compulsory to design the flanges 6 such that set-screws 9 would be positioned transversely away from the respective opposite sides 12. Such a design has however resulted heretofore in a larger space for surface-mounting the connector 1 as a whole including its flanges 6, even if its body itself would have been of a relatively small size.
The other type of the known flanged connector `1A` shown in FIG. 8 has a single flange 6 bent at and extending outwards from an upper edge of the front opening 5. Also in this case, the set-screw 9 should not interfere with an upper face of the mating plug 12 when bringing the cable and the connector 1A into electric connection. Thus, the flange 6 had likewise to be designed such that the set-screw 9 would be positioned upwards away from the upper face of the plug 12. This design has also resulted in a comparatively larger space for surface-mounting the connector 1A as a whole including its flange 6, even if the connector body had been of a relatively small size.